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“You want the clothes you have to let me dress you,” Ross said.
The woman who may or may not be Dark Beauty had followed them into the room. She had a glass of wine in one hand, a book in the other, and was sitting on the other side of the fireplace. “Really, Ross? You are so childish.”
He shrugged, not bothering to look at the woman she knew was his wife. It was obvious that he had no issue with lusting after another woman right in front of her, so she had to assume that their marriage was not one of love.
Not that she would have expected differently. Ross wasn’t the kind of man who fell in love in the traditional sense of the word, he developed obsessions. If his wife was Dark Beauty, she had been involved with Kristoff Mikhailov. From what she’d said before setting the explosion that had almost killed Domino and Julia, she had been in love with the leader of the Russian Bratva. She didn’t seem to care what Ross did any more than Ross cared if she watched.
Everything in her wanted to refuse. Lila would much rather stick to her principles and refuse to let this disgusting lech of a man touch her, but she needed to be dressed. If an opportunity to run presented itself, she would take it.
Practical.
That was the only thing she could afford to be right now.
Principles were only going to get her hurt and if she was too badly hurt she couldn’t escape.
All on you, Lila.
That was what she had to keep reminding herself.
Being alone wasn’t something new to her but never had it been this hard. The stakes were so high. It wasn’t just about her, it was about this little baby she was carrying. Christian’s baby.
Maybe her papa bear had imparted a little of his warrior spirit into their baby bear. If she didn’t believe in herself then she couldn’t do this. Christian would believe in her. He would encourage her, uplift her, and tell her she could do this.
If she didn’t believe in herself then she was already dead.
If she was already dead, then her baby was dead too.
And with both of them gone, she had a horrible feeling in her gut that Christian would have nothing left to live for.
Her man and her baby depended on her, and she was not going to let them down.
Jutting out her chin, Lila didn’t shy away from meeting Ross’ gaze. “You can dress me.” She didn’t flinch as lust flared in his light brown eyes, and when his hands roamed her body in completely unnecessary touches to put clothes on her, she steadfastly endured.
Lila prayed she had what it took to endure whatever else was coming.
Chapter Seven
November 16th
2:09 P.M.
This was taking too long.
Every second that passed without a solid lead on who had taken Lila and where they were holding her was another second where she could be hurt.
Surf was nearly paralyzed by thoughts of what could be happening to her.
What could have already happened to her.
Lila’s fate all depended on who had taken her and why. If Vivienne had organized this to get Lila out of the way to clear the path for her to make a move on him, then Lila could already be dead. But this being all about him and Vivienne didn’t fit with the number of men who had been there and the fact they had used an explosion. They already knew Kristoff was into explosions, and it all seemed too elaborate to be about a girl wanting to get a rival out of the way to get a guy.
As much as he hated to admit it, Lila being taken by Dark Beauty was her best chance of still being alive, giving them a chance to find her.
“If this doesn’t work …” Surf started, unable to finish the sentence as his throat closed up on him.
“We’ll find her,” Arrow assured him from the front seat of the SUV.
“Vivienne wasn’t at her apartment and didn’t show up at Prey today,” he reminded his teammate. They couldn’t waste time driving around the city hoping they might stumble upon Vivienne Waters. Yet he wasn’t sure what else they could do. They had no leads on Dark Beauty and no way of making any progress any time soon. Already they had been trying for weeks to figure out the woman’s real identity.
